Gathering of Darkness
by takusi
Summary: what if Ansem was only a puppet in the war against darkness? Kingdom Hearts has been opened again, and the heartless have been appearing all over the different worlds, and they are much stronger than before. R and R (flamers too)


Takusi: well I know I haven't done anything in a while, but this one is going to be my longest, and hopefully best, one that I've done so far. I've actually planned this one out so lets hope it'll last. Keep in mind this takes place right after the first one ends. Enjoy  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own kingdom hearts, although I do own my oc's.  
  
"Where is he?" said Sora scanning the horizon.  
  
They had been chasing Pluto for hours and they'd lost him in a small outcropping of trees.  
  
"I don't know" wheezed Donald "but let's rest for a little bit" he then closed his eyes and leaned against the nearest tree.  
  
Sora chuckled as he remembered Donald running full out trying to keep up with him and Goofy.  
  
He then spotted something way in the distance. "C'mon you guys, I see something" and he started running.  
  
"C'mon Donald, lets go," said Goofy with a wave of his hand.  
  
"All right, I'm coming" sighed Donald, before he slowly took off after them.  
  
As Sora came up to it he realized that it was an elegantly carved door with a rose and a heart carved into it.  
  
"Wow" Sora said, wide-eyed "I wonder what this is doing here?" he placed his gloved hand on it and felt the glossy wood under it.  
  
"I...wheeze...don't...wheeze...know" said Donald, if it weren't for his Save the Queen rod which he was putting his full support on, he would have collapsed.  
  
"Well" Goofy said, "might as well open it up. It could lead us to the king"  
  
"Yeah" said Sora, remembering Riku's last words before shutting Kingdom Hearts. "Take care of her".  
  
"Well what are ya waiting for" cried Donald "open it up"  
  
"Right" Sora nodded and he gripped the brass doorknob and pulled. A blinding light emerged from the doorway. Sora strained to see what was inside, but all he could see was white.  
  
"Might as well" Sora shrugged, as he stepped through the doorway, into the blinding light.  
  
The door then blew shut, and try as they might, Goofy and Donald could not get it open again.  
  
As soon as he stepped through, Sora felt a falling sensation, and realized that he was plummeting downward at an incredible speed. He then lost consciousness  
  
"It is all in place master" hissed a cloaked figure, kneeling before a large throne, which looked like it was made from human skeletons.  
  
"Good" said the demonic figure sitting on the throne "soon the darkness shall rise again, and it will be much stronger than before"  
  
When Sora awoke, he found himself in the dark, lying in a pile of boxes.  
  
"This seems familiar" he muttered to himself "wonder where I am" he stood up, stretched, and looked around. He was in a murky alleyway, with sewage and garbage everywhere. The humidity in the air suggested that it had rained recently. The night sky full of stars.  
  
Sora walked out, and saw that this was nothing like Traverse Town. It was a lot larger, and even though it was night, it seemed to have an aura of a bustling city. He searched for a clue as to where he was, and he saw a large neon sign saying 'welcome to Starlight City'.  
  
"I wonder where Donald and Goofy are?" he thought as he searched for someone to talk to. All the stores were closed and all of the lights were off in the houses. He then spotted a small ramshackle building with the lights still on. He could barley make out the words on the faded yellow sign 'twilight tavern'.  
  
"Well" thought Sora "its as good a place as any" he pushed open the doors and walked in.  
  
A dank smell entered his nostrils the moment he stepped inside. The floor was warped and there were glass shards and busted table parts on the floor, which suggested that there was a fight. Sora walked over to the bar and approached the only person who had not passed out.  
  
"Where am I?" he asked but all he could make out were drunken ramblings. Something about a tuna fish sandwich riding the moon.  
  
"I'm getting nowhere with this" Sora muttered to himself and he slowly stepped out of the bar. He didn't notice the pair of eyes in the shadows watching his every move.  
  
"Maybe they have an inn I can stay at," thought Sora as he turned the corner. He caught sight of a gray and red blur coming at him before he found himself on the ground being nuzzled by a red-haired girl. She turned her face and stared right into his eyes. Aquamarine met crimson as the look of happiness on her face quickly changed to a look of surprise.  
  
"Oh, I am soo sorry" she said helping Sora to his feet "I thought you were someone else". Now that she was standing, Sora got a good look at her.  
  
She looked to be about a year or two older than himself, around 14 or 15, with wild, waist length, bloodred hair and fiery, crimson eyes. She was wearing an oversized gray undershirt, and faded black pants, with rears in the knee's, and frayed bottoms. She had on black fingerless gloves with a white cross on the back and two belts crisscrossing at her hips with a heart insignia embedded on the clasps.  
  
"Are you okay?" she asked with a look of worry in her eyes.  
  
Sora flashed her one of his trademark grins "oh yeah I'm fine"  
  
The look of worry changed to a look of relief "oh that's good, well see ya" she then turned to run, but before she could go two steps she let out a small scream. Sora turned to see something emerge from the ground in front of her. There was no mistaking it as a heartless. It looked like a shade, except with longer limbs and sharper claws.  
  
Sora was about to tell her to get back, but before he could even open his mouth, she had summoned a large staff to her hand. It looked like a shepherd's staff except the top bent down into the shape of a heart.  
  
She bent down into a fighting stance with her staff in front of her, and started muttering. The heartless leapt at her, his claws raised, and just before he struck, a fireball the size of a basketball erupted from her staff and struck the heartless squarely in the chest. It burst into black smoke, before disappeared entirely.  
  
"Yes!" she yelled, jumping into the air "direct hit".  
  
"Don't celebrate just yet", Sora said, pointing at the moving shadows on the ground. Each one of them sprang up into the new heartless.  
  
Sora summoned the kingdom key to his hand. "Man, I wish all of my key chains didn't go back to their worlds when he sealed Kingdom Hearts" Sora thought, wishing he still had the Ultima Keyblade.  
  
The heartless surrounded them and were advancing. Sora and the Girl stood back to back waiting for them to get closer. Sora ran forward with an Ars Arcanum. And as powerful as that combo was, Sora was surprised to see that it only took out one heartless.  
  
"Damn" Sora muttered, defending himself against the sharp claws of another heartless. "They've gotten stronger". He looked back to see how the girl was doing and he saw her bash a heartless in the head with a technique similar to Sora's Vortex. The blow sent the heartless hurling into a wall where it burst into black smoke.  
  
She then let out a scream as another one struck her from behind, she slumped to the floor and her staff clattered on the ground, before disappearing with a flash of light.  
  
"Guess I'm all by myself", thought Sora gravely, hacking and slashing. No matter how many he killed, more just kept coming. His heal spells kept him alive, but he was wearing down, both mentally, and physically. Then one got him in the stomach, and another leapt on his back. His world was fading, just before the onslaught of heartless could overtake him, he heard the sound of a gunshot, followed by a gruff voice. "Hey Tifa, get them outta here" and then his world went dark.  
  
When Sora awoke, he found himself lying on a lumpy cot in a leaky basement. He looked over to see an empty cot next to him. He got up slowly, feeling a sharp pain in his joints. All of his wounds had been healed, but his muscles still ached from that vigorous battle.  
  
He went up the stairs in search of his rescuers, and the red haired girl. He saw that he was in a small pub with pipes running down the walls. The red haired girl was sitting on a stool drinking a cup of coffee. There was a girl, around 19, with long black hair, and fighter gloves.  
  
A guy, who looked sorta like Mr. T, was sitting at a wooden table with a gun grafted onto his arm.  
  
"Oh, your finally awake, huh" said the red haired with a hint of mockery in her voice.  
  
"Where am I" Sora asked, scratching the back of his head. "What happened"  
  
"Let's start with introductions first", said the black haired girl "my name is Tifa" she pointed to herself  
  
"I'm Yuri", said the red haired girl  
  
"Barret" growled the guy  
  
"Well, I'm Sora" he said still confused  
  
"Well to answer your first question," Tifa said, "you're in my pub" Sora pulled out a chair and sat down. "To answer you second question..." Tifa started, but was cut of by Yuri  
  
"They told me the whole story while you were asleep" she said breathlessly "apparently you got struck down by one of those shadow thingies, and these guys heard the battle, so Barret ran over and started firing, which scared them off long enough for Tifa to get us inside." She took a deep breath and continued "then they brought us in here and healed us up"  
  
"Wow" Sora said, "I guess we owe you guys"  
  
"Don't worry about it" Tifa said, "we do what we can to stop the heartless"  
  
"HEARTLESS" cried Sora wide eyed "how do you know about the heartless"  
  
"Whats a heartless" Yuri asked, tilting her head slightly.  
  
"Those creatures you were fighting earlier" Tifa said "the ones that took our world from us" she said those last words with a hint of sadness in her voice.  
  
"Damnit!" yelled Barret, slamming his gun arm on the table "they got Marlene"  
  
"Calm down" said Tifa running over there to comfort him. "We'll get her back, once we find the Keybearer, we'll get her back"  
  
"Hey" Yuri said, "Sora's got a key"  
  
"WHAT!" both Barret and Tifa yelled at the same time.  
  
"That's right," said Sora, summoning the Kingdom Key to his hand. "First I want to hear your story, how do you know so much about the heartless and the Keyblade"  
  
"Yeah" Yuri said, "I wanna know too. I'm kinda in the dark on the subject"  
  
"Okay" said Tifa "we come from a place called Hallow Bastion, where a man named Ansem..."  
  
"Yeah, I know all that" Sora interrupted "I met a man named Leon and he told me the whole story."  
  
"Oh" Tifa said, "well what happened with all of the heartless. All of the worlds were being destroyed, and it all suddenly stopped. I know that you must have done something, but when the worlds started returning we got stuck here."  
  
"Well..." Sora said as he retold his whole adventures with Donald and Goofy, and Ansem, and the sealing of Kingdom Hearts, and Riku, and Kairi...  
  
"Well it would seem" Tifa said "that Kingdom Hearts has been opened again"  
  
"But how's that possible" said Sora "king Mickey and I sealed it, not to mention I defeated their leader Ansem."  
  
"I'm not sure" Tifa said "but it seems that it is all happening again, only this time they're stronger than before"  
  
"Wait a minute!" Sora said, standing up so fast it knocked his stool over "if Kingdom Hearts has been opened, then Mickey and Riku could have gotten out, and if I can even have a chance of closing Kingdom Hearts, I'll need to find King Mickey."  
  
"Well then I suggest you find them" Tifa said  
  
"But I have no clue where they are" replied Sora gravely "and even if I did, I don't have a Gummi ship to get to them"  
  
"Well, that's not such a big problem" Tifa said, "Starlight City has a Planetary Train Station"  
  
"Whats that" Sora asked, sitting down again "it's a train that can travel to other planets, unfortunately its in the fifth district, and that's swarming with heartless."  
  
"Well, if I seal the keyhole to this world" Sora said with hope in his voice "then the heartless would be gone, and the train station could open up again"  
  
"Its gonna be difficult kid" Barret said "you didn't last too long against those heartless before"  
  
"I'll go with you" Yuri said, running over to Sora "together we'll beat em"  
  
"I don't know" Sora said "you're a good fighter, but it still might not be enough"  
  
"Perhaps I can be of assistance" came a voice from the shadows.  
  
"Who's there!" yelled Barret pointing his gun at the shadow "step out of the shadows"  
  
"Certainly" the voice said stepping out.  
  
It was a boy, around 15 or 16, with emerald green eyes, and pointed elven ears. His silver hair was kept chin length in the front, and the back he kept in a ponytail which went down to the square of his back. He had on an oversized black button-down shirt, with red slash marks on it, and a plain black shirt underneath. His black pants had straps and buckles going every which way and black combat boots, which reached halfway up his calves. He had on ragged black cutoff gloves with several studs missing at the knuckles, and a sword strapped to his belt in an elegant sheath, with a wolf carved into it.  
  
"Who are you?" asked Sora, suspiciously. "And what do you mean, be of some assistance?"  
  
"My name is Zengalis" he said "and it is simple, I am willing to help you get to the fifth district"  
  
"Whats the catch" asked Yuri, eyeing him suspiciously.  
  
"You take me with you" Zengalis said "I lost my world to these creatures, these heartless" he seemed to spit out that last word "but I would do anything to get back at them"  
  
Sora considered this for a moment, then held out his hand. "Deal"  
  
Zengalis took it and smiled.  
  
"So lets get going!" yelled Yuri, raising her fist, and jumping into the air.  
  
Takusi: well, I know that people probably wont even read this, no one ever does, but please, even if you hate it, review. The next chapter will feature a boss battle, and some of Yuri's magic will come from the show the Slayers. And that Barret thing, I always thought he looked like Mr.T, I find it funny. I should post another one within a week. Sooner if I get a review. Well, until next time. 


End file.
